Monterey County’s move to buy 126 acres of farmland south of Salinas for a new jail has all the makings of a political controversy: questionable connections to the sheriff’s race, quid pro quo between city and county, and a potential dealbreaker with the California International Airshow.

Warren Wayland, Sheriff Mike Kanalakis’ campaign treasurer and co-founder of the accounting firm Hayashi & Wayland, is also representing the owners of the jail site property. The farmland is split between several interests, including Bowen Ranch Land Co., which Wayland manages; a Los Angeles bank; George Helmers of Pleasanton; and family trusts. Wayland’s wife, Marjorie, owns a share of the land, as does M4J Properties, for which she is listed as a general partner, according to county records.

The county has long desired to replace or expand its dangerously overcrowded jail, but a prospective location for a new jail/probation department/juvenile hall campus came together quickly. At a Feb. 26 special meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved an intent to purchase a portion of Airport Ranch with a floor price of $40,000 an acre, or at least $5.04 million.

The county also agreed to pay the property owners $100,000 a year after the first year of negotiations in the five-year buying window, but if the deal falls through, the county doesn’t get that money back. The county is still waiting for the property owners to sign off on the letter of intent, says Wayne Tanda, county Resource Management Agency director.

Wayland is also president of the Salinas Regional Sports Authority, the nonprofit that wants to develop a soccer complex on Constitution Boulevard. Wayland didn’t return calls from the Weekly.

Sheriff’s union representative Dave Cariaga has staked out Kanalakis at Wayland’s office, claiming the sheriff repeatedly met there on Fridays, and accusing him of campaigning on the job.

County spokeswoman Maia Carroll responded for Kanalakis, saying the jail project hasn’t been in the sheriff’s ball park. “It has nothing to do with the sheriff’s campaign,” Carroll says.

The county-owned soccer land got entangled with the jail property after county officials demanded the Salinas City Council agree to the jail location before supervisors would lease the soccer site. (Wayland recused himself from negotiating the soccer lease because of his role in the jail property, Tanda says.)

Not wanting to jeopardize the Sports Authority’s grant deadline, the council consented, though with some groans. “It’s like we are doing this deal backwards,” says Councilman Steve Villegas. “You iron out all the wrinkles first, then sign it. But what we did is sign it, and then start to iron out the wrinkles.”

The jail site falls within the “aerobatic box” of the Salinas airshow, and could collide with Federal Aviation Administration requirements for military jet teams like the Blue Angels, says Harry Wardwell, airshow executive director. “We want to make sure [the jail] is out of that box,” Wardwell says.

There’s also concern that the facility could open the door for development. “This is the dream of a lot of these third-generation farmer families, to cut up their land next to the city and make millions and millions of dollars on it,” says Rick Cope, a county resident and private investigator.

Supervisor Lou Calcagno says he won’t support the location unless the land surrounding the jail is permanently preserved for agricultural uses.